LSU Can’t Ignore the Coming Coaching Salary Correction

Preach!!

We maxed out the credit card and most of the board want's us to write a hot check.

The BK deal brought it all to a head. Unfortunately we have to be the whipping boy.

Ironically it started here with Saban.

$10 million per year: 60-hour work week = $3200 per hour
84-hour work week = $2289 per hour

It needs to happen. How can you justify paying a coach that much when the entire state is a broke and corrupt disaster?

Great post. More and more schools will balk at established coaches asking for guaranteed contracts and say “no thanks, I’ll go to this coordinator instead” and then the established coaches will lose their bargaining power.

quote:

---

Great post. More and more schools will balk at established coaches asking for guaranteed contracts and say “no thanks, I’ll go to this coordinator instead” and then the established coaches will lose their bargaining power.

---

I doubt that.

I agree that a correction is coming (and is necessary) but I think loudly broadcasting that you'll be leading that correction makes you an easy target. Especially since multiple schools are looking for a coach this season, you don't want to make your position any worse. Proclaiming that you'll be the school that's leading the charge on paying coaches less guaranteed money is just negative recruitment. You know that whole "first one to talk, loses" thing in sales? We're shouting through a megaphone right now.

Fair take — and you’re absolutely right about the “first one to talk loses” rule. No school should publicly announce they’re cutting coach pay; that’s suicide in recruiting and optics.

But leading the correction doesn’t have to mean announcing it. It means structuring smarter contracts — more performance-based incentives, smaller guaranteed buyouts, shorter terms, and aligning pay with on-field results and NIL realities. LSU doesn’t need to hold a press conference about it — just quietly start doing it while everyone else keeps burning money.

Eventually, other schools will have to follow once they feel the same budget pressure. The “loud” part isn’t necessary; the discipline is. The smartest programs will let the market shift to them instead of getting caught reacting to it later.

quote:

---

Since $0.00 tax dollars go to LSU athletics

---

Have you looked at what the governor said about who is ultimately responsible for the Kelly buyout?

The top 1/3rd of the NFL HCs still make more (annually) than the top HC in CFB. The way the market corrects in CFB is if/when colleges are content with hiring the NFL equivalent of an assistant coach to a 1st time HC job...then not pissing their pants to give him an extension at the first glimmer of success. For example Mel Tucker was once such guy. His initial contract at MSU was $5.5M annually. He had ONE good season, and used it along with openings at other schools (including LSU) to leverage MSU into a 10 year $95M contract.

While in theory you may be right, there is no suggestion the big donors, who are hugely competitive people, are willing to just hire a low demand coach and hope it works out.

Again, I think people forget LSU did EXACTLY THAT in 2016 when it hired Orgeron. A plan that worked with a remarkable 2019 season. A plan that hasn't been repeated with great success.

Sure, Michigan St might initially hire someone for a reasonable contract. But the moment he has success, the fans/boosters at bigger programs will demand he come produce that success at their school...and the cycle starts over.

The HC salary use to be a guarantee after the coach received payment for private services like the coaches radio show, endorsements and that sort of things. That may have changed but in the old days that’s how it worked.